cross-border trucking

A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Teamsters Union challenging the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s cross-border trucking program. FMCSA in January 2015 opened the U.S. operating authority application process to all Mexican carriers, prompting the Teamsters’ court challenge.

Cross-border trucking with Mexico saw action in Congress last week, and it is set to see action next month in court, as a federal court is slated to hear arguments March 15 against a 2014 FMCSA policy allowing Mexican carriers to apply for long-haul operating authority in the U.S.

The changes come by way of the opening of a new cross-border bridge, prompting the DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to establish new boundaries for the El Paso border zone. The expansion will allow Mexican carriers an expanded border zone in which to deliver and pickup cross-border loads.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced this week it now accepts Mexico’s criteria for annual inspection of trucks domiciled there after concluding its inspection standards were comparable to the United States.

The commercial border zone expansion will give Mexican-domiciled and U.S.-domiciled carriers and drivers a bigger zone to pick up and drop freight near El Paso, along with making some New Mexico-based crossings officially codified as cross-border zones.

Following the Teamsters March-filed lawsuit against the Department of Transportation over its expansion of the cross-border trucking, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association this week announced it seeks to join the driver union’s litigation.